Among the many films to be made on one of the most important events in American history, the attack on Pearl Harbor, Midway is the latest. A war drama directed by Roland Emmerich, the film is expected to release on November 8, 2019 in the US, right in time for the Veterans Day weekend.
The Godzilla director is known for his apocalyptical films like Independence Day (1996), The Day After Tomorrow (2004), 10,000 BC (2008), 2012 (2009) and White House Down (2013).
Written by Wes Tooke, the film boasts of an ensemble cast - Ed Skrein, Patrick Wilson, Luke Evans, Aaron Eckhart, Nick Jonas, Mandy Moore, Dennis Quaid, Darren Criss and Woody Harrelson. Midway was announced in May 2017 and began production in September last year. According to reports, Ed Skrein plays Dick Best, the real-life dive bomber who sank a Japanese aircraft carrier during the battle.
According to reports, the German filmmaker’s Midway hopes to correct all the historical inaccuracies and anachronisms of Michael Bay’s 2001 Pearl Harbor. The director has also focused on the lives of unknown heroes who fought hard in the battle of Midway.
Midway’s 2-minute trailer begins with a mother (Mandy Moore) rushing out to find fighter planes bombing ships on the water body close to her house. Another action-packed trailer shows Nick Jonas playing one of the fighter jet pilots. The trailer shows breathtaking action sequences, of fighter planes plunging, raining bullets and aircrafts getting bombed.
The film perhaps begins with the attack on Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941) and proceeds to the Battle of Midway that took place between 4 and 7 June 1942, six months after the attack near the Hawaiian Midway Islands. The fierce naval battle was fought between the American Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy and turned out to be a turning point in World War II.
Four Japanese and three American aircraft carriers participated in the battle that is considered to be one of the best strategically planned attacks by America, thus becoming a turning point in the Pacific War.
The United States Navy under Admirals Chester W. Nimitz, Frank Jack Fletcher, and Raymond A Spruance defeated an attacking fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy under Admirals Isoroku Yamamoto, Chūichi Nagumo, and Nobutake Kondō. The battle was fought to ensure Japanese dominance in the Pacific and was a response to America’s Doolittle air raid on Tokyo that took place on 18 April 1942.
Produced by Roland Emmerich and Harald Kloser, the film’s cinematography has been done by Robby Baumgartner and edited by Adam Wolfe. Interestingly, a 1976 film of the same name was directed by Jack Smight and produced by Walter Mirisch from a screenplay by Donald S Sanford. Although it received mixed responses from the audience and critics, Midway became the tenth most popular movie at the box-office in 1976. The film starred Charlton Heston, Henry Fonda, James Coburn, Glenn Ford, Ed Nelson, Hal Holbrook, Toshiro Mifune, Robert Mitchum, Cliff Robertson, Robert Wagner amongst others.
Midway recently premiered for an audience of military personnel in Hawaii at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam's Sharkey Theater to great response.